The art of making PVC gloves was well established a long time ago. Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC) and PVC containing copolymers, such as vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate copolymer, can be conventionally dipped with certain plasticizers.
Historically, due to its poor barrier integrity (low puncture strength and low tensile strength) and the fact that they are very uncomfortable to wear in comparison with natural and synthetic rubber latex gloves, their applications have been very limited. As a matter of fact, PVC gloves are not generally recommended for medical applications.
However, recently, driven by their low cost and the advantage of being free of proteins (that could cause Type I allergy) and being free of chemicals used for conventional rubber sulfur vulcanization (that could cause Type IV sensitivity), the volume of vinyl gloves has been increasing steadily, although mainly in low end applications.
Another shortcoming of vinyl gloves has emerged, “in use failure”. It is reported that the “in use” failure rate can be as alarmingly high as 60%. In other words, it simply does not provide the function, hand protection to wearers, that it is designed to provide.
One family of commonly used plasticizers, in PVC products as well as in other gloves, is dialkyl phthalate. They can be toxic and can be extracted by cooking oils, hence they have been banned in food handling in some countries and several states in the USA. Even without such oil contact, they can migrate out of glove matrix to result in brittle gloves.
It is an object of the invention to provide gloves made from PVC that are suitable for medical applications.
It is another object of the invention to provide gloves made from PVC having improved barrier qualities.
It is still another object of the invention to provide gloves made from PVC that are comfortable to wear.
It is yet another object of the invention to use a plasticizer that is polymeric, so that it is more difficult to migrate out of the glove matrix.
It is another object of the invention to use a crosslinking agent
These and other objects will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art after reading the disclosure of the invention.